The viral video-sphere knows the trend well: every time a new superhero movie comes on the horizon, some intrepid YouTuber makes the “Wes Anderson” version, usually involving low-key outfits, dollhouse-like production design, quirky voice-over narration, and actors doing their best impersonation of the Wilson brothers and Gwyneth Paltrow.
Netflix‘s The Umbrella Academy doesn’t actually have anything to do with Wes Anderson, but the first trailer looks a lot like a viral version of, say, “Wes Anderson’s X-Men.”
In actuality, the mind behind this particular powered team is of course My Chemical Romance’s Gerard Way, who tried to get the project made as a movie for a few years before Netflix picked it up to series. The original comic series was an Eisner award-winner in 2008; what we’re seeing of the show so far looks like it’s off to a good start as far as quality goes. Ellen Page might not have been able to make X-Men 3 everyone’s favorite (though we can agree all her parts were pretty good), but she was great as a costumed hero without special abilities in Super, and that’s pretty much her role here too. At least at first.
The trailer runs through the Hargreeves super-siblings with Flash-like speed; if you want to learn more about their names and powers, we’d encourage you to refer back to our handy-dandy guide and poster gallery. One thing you can count on, though: they’ll have to come together to save the world from…well, we don’t want to spoil that for you. Let’s just say something world-threatening. You can find out more on Feb. 15th.
Image: Netflix
